This invention relates to axle drives for motor vehicles and, more particularly, to an axle drive differential gear case arrangement for a gearbox disposed transverse to the longitudinal axis of the motor vehicle.
A conventional axle drive for a motor vehicle is disclosed and described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,630,506 to Allmandinger et al. Such prior art axle drives usually comprise a bevel gear differential and a drive pinion gear having a longitudinally extending axis with the drive pinion gear meshing with the differential ring gear. The ring gear is secured to the differential case with the ring gear rim facing away from the differential pinions. In the conventional manner, exemplified in the Allmandinger patent, the ring gear is connected by screws to a radially outwardly directed flange of the bevel gear differential case so that the ring gear and particularly its gear rim is relatively large in diameter. Such known designs restrict the ground clearance of the vehicle adjacent to the differential and increases the distance from the axle drive to the floor of the motor vehicle. Also, it is difficult to install the differential bevel pinions in the differential case because the bevel pinions must be threaded into the case through openings.
Further, in prior art arrangements, such as shown in Published German Patent Application No. 37 04 654, it is difficult to install the differential bevel pinions in the differential case. In the German Application the surface for centering the ring gear on the differential case is somewhat smaller in diameter but the gear rim of the ring gear is radially spaced a substantial distance from the flight circle of the differential bevel pinions. In addition there is the additional disadvantage in that the shaft of the drive pinion extends beyond one output shaft of the differential so that the pinion drive shaft and the output shaft must be spaced a substantial distance apart whereby the drive pinion and the ring gear cannot properly mesh with each other.